Manuscript leaf from a Breviary, in Latin, produced in Italy (Ferrara)

Text: From a Breviary, in Latin

Script: Southern Textualis Formata (Rotunda)

The text is written in a single column of thirteen lines in a rounded gothic book hand, black ink, ruled lightly with ink, rubrics in shell gold. There is one two-line initial in various colours on a burnished gold ground with a fanciful bar border in gold and several colours and terminating at the top and bottom with a cluster of bezants and a little flower. There are four one-line initials, three of which are in raised and burnished gold, the fourth being in blue; all are embellished with pen working.

Recto side:

1 -cos iesu n(ost)ra redemptio .

2 P er felices cichatrices

3 sputa flagella verbera [line filler]

4 nobis grata sint collata

5 eterna (christ)i munera N o-

6 strum tangat cor ut plan-

7 gat tuoru(m) sanguinis vul-

8 nerum in quo toti sumus

9 loti conditor alme syderu(m) .

10 P assionis tue donis sal-

11 vator . nos inebria qua

12 fidelis dare velis beata

13 nobis gaudia . Amen . :

Verso side:

1 V(ersus) Ego fui flagellatus tota [Psalm 72:14

2 die . R(esponsorium) Et castigatio mea i(n)

3 matutinis . a(ntiphona) . Tradar ego

4 gentibus ad illudendum (et)

5 flagellandum et crucifigen-

6 dum et tertia die resurgam .

7 B Enedictus d(omi)n(u)s ps(almus)

8 deus israel quia visita-

9 vit . (et) c(etera) . Re(sponsorium) i(n) laudib(us) b(ea)te

10 marie . an(tiphona) . T radar ego

11 gentibus ad illudendum et

12 crucifigendum (et) tertia die

13 resurgam . oratio .

Notes:

A Letters: a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,l,m,n,o,p,q,r,s,t,u/v,x,y,A,E,R,T,V.

Versals: B,N,P,T.

B Alternative forms of letters ‘d’(2), ‘m’(2), ‘r’(2) and ‘s’(2).

C Fusion between letters ‘be’, ‘de’ and ‘do’.

D Elision between letters ‘fi’, ‘fu’, ‘ti’ and ‘tu’.

E Ligature between letters ‘st’, e.g. in ‘castigatio’ (verso, line 2).

F Use of the Tironian ‘et’ in the abbreviation of ‘et cetera’ (verso, line 9).

G Use of ‘xp’ for the Greek chi-rho (‘χρ’) in ‘christi’ (recto, line 5).

H Yellow painting on burnished gold of versal ‘B’ (verso, line 7).

I Writing in shell gold (especially verso, lines 9, 10 and 13).